


Of Love and Friendship

by MissWoodhouse



Category: Foyle's War, Home Fires (UK TV)
Genre: Canon LGBTQ Character, Fix-It of Sorts, Happ(ier) Endings, Marriage of Convenience
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-03
Updated: 2017-06-03
Packaged: 2018-11-08 13:32:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11082609
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MissWoodhouse/pseuds/MissWoodhouse
Summary: In which Rex Talbot is transferred to the RAF base near Great Paxford in place of Nick Lucas, and everything else proceeds almost the same.  Or, in which Teresa Fenchurch's marriage is not nearly so depressing as in canon.(a crossover inspired by a casting overlap)





	1. Rex

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Upon Concluded Lives](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10561736) by [middlemarch](https://archiveofourown.org/users/middlemarch/pseuds/middlemarch). 



> I know Nick Lucas is older, and neither the timelines nor Rex’s canonical rank quite match up, but I since Rex Talbot and Wing Commander Lucas are played by the same actor, the crossover idea seemed like to perfect way to give both Rex and Teresa happier endings. And I stole the Sam & Sarah relationship from Middlemarch’s “Upon Concluded Lives,” which was the only other crossover of these two that I could find.

The transfer to Great Paxford should, in all honesty have come as a relief. Here was a ready-made excuse to break things off with Connie and get some…distance from Andrew before anyone got hurt. The promotion to Squadron Leader shouldn’t have hurt either.

 

By logical conclusion, Rex should have flown out on the transfer with a smile on his face. But something stung, and pricked, and drew tears up until they almost – but not quite – welled in the corner of his eyes. He was an Englishman, goddammit, and a commanding officer to boot. It wouldn’t do to cry, not when he’d survived. Not because he’d survived, and left younger men, less experienced men, to keep flying deadly ops in his place. Left Andrew the only surviving member of their set still at the Hastings base. Left Andrew...

 

Rex forced his focus to the gauges and the landscape, slipping into the muscle memory of running a high pressure op, and hoping his thoughts might slip away too.

 

\---

 

Great Paxford wasn’t all bad, and it wasn’t long before Rex felt just as much kinship for, the same protectiveness over the lads here as those back in Hastings (most of those back in Hastings). He settled into the burden of responsibility, and only sometimes ached for the adrenaline rush of just doing something, goddammit, and not putting anyone but himself at risk.

 

He dutifully struck up a flirtation with his hostess, a safely married vicar’s wife who’d never push like Connie had. Sarah was beautiful, and kind, and looking for comfort, or adventure, or something else entirely; but she was also a vicar’s wife, and she’d never really dare to go in search of it.

 

Andrew wrote once or twice, but the first letter of any substance was filled with news of Connie, when all Rex really wanted was news of him. “Well shod of her,” Andrew said, “promotion came just in time.” Connie’d been caught by Andrew’s dad, the go-between on a black market fuel racket. She’d been pregnant when he left too, and not with Rex’s kid, although who was he to begrudge her a fumble elsewhere when he’d hardly given her anything himself.

 

But the best thing about the letter was the one Sarah got that same week, the one that she read aloud to the Reverend Collingborne, across the sitting room from Rex after dinner one night.

 

The Collingborne’s niece, it seemed, had been caught up in the fuel depot incident too, and was in fact the DI’s driver whom Andrew had vaguely referred to as almost getting herself blown up – again – in sorting the whole affair. Her description was far more entertaining, and far more detailed – as woman’s letter to her aunt was likely to be – where Andrew was liable to be rather more direct and to describe events in more impressively catastrophizing terms. Rex figured it was best not to mention Andrew’s use of the words “undercover” or “again” to the concerned relatives.

 

Sam, it seemed – the niece/driver – wrote to her aunt quite frequently after that, especially once the Vicar was deployed. And as if she could sense that her aunt needed company, the letters grew more confessional too. In a show of kindness, after learning of Rex’s ' _deep friendship'_ with Andrew, Sarah read him almost everything mentioning the Foyles. In time, Rex grew to like the plucky young woman, despite the lingering jealousy that she got to be near Andrew and he…couldn’t.

 

In the end, he was hardly surprised to hear Andrew was courting her, and could almost even forgive her for it, so long as he go to live vicariously in her letters to Sarah.

 

\---

 

But the Reverend Collingborne had gone, and with him some of Sarah inhibitions, and Rex knew he couldn’t let things go on much longer, not even for the sake of the letters. Shipping out himself, well, that should have made it easier, but how could he say no to coming back?

 

After his predecessor’s affair, the newly promoted Wing Commander Talbot needed to be even more careful, and so he wasn’t thinking permanent, only _single woman_ when he asked Miss Fenchurch to dance in front of Sarah. The whole town knew she hadn’t got a beau, and young Halliwell went on and on about how nice she’d been to the Campbell girl after _that_ incident. It wasn’t until he caught her eyes locked on Annie that a plan started taking shape.


	2. Teresa

Teresa wasn’t going to turn a handsome Wing Commander down for a dance at a military-friendship social event – that would be asking for gossip. But she wasn’t about to tell him yes on a date just to stop the gossip either. It wouldn’t be fair to either of them.

 

And then he introduced her to Annie, the fetching female pilot in her crisp, dark uniform. And Teresa forgot herself, for a moment. And when she turned back, the Wing Commander gave her a knowing little smile, and she wondered…

 

And when he asked to see her again, he glanced back at Annie, and she knew she had to say yes.

 

\---

 

To say it wasn’t a bit of a disappointment, then, to find the Wing Commander at the door and not Annie – as she’d wished in her most private hopes – would be a lie. But things were pleasant with the wing commander. With Rex. And he did keep dropping Annie’s name, like a little trail of breadcrumbs spelling out a secret she could not yet quite read. On their walk, she felt a flutter of hope, rounding the crest of the hill, with Rex so focused on the time, that this was some secret rendezvous arranged with the transport pilot, and everything with Rex was just a ruse. Perhaps it was.

 

Perhaps Annie was one of the ones meant to jump down in a parachute, before the accident halted everything.

 

Perhaps…perhaps he was telling her it could all be a ruse. If he felt as she – and there surely were men of a similar persuasion, just as there were other women – then perhaps she might have Rex as a beau, and Annie as a friend for all the world to see. And who was to mind if they all switched round behind closed doors?

 

And wasn’t that a fearful thought? To have her cake and eat it too? Be a respectable woman who wasn’t breaking any hearts in having her bit on the side. An understanding. Happiness – the idea seemed too wonderful to be true. And too terrifying. How to bring it up – was he waiting for her or her for him? Did Annie know? Seeing her in the street that evening outside the hall, the temptation was so strong to reach out and…

 

But what if she was wrong, what if someone found out? Better to go home and…say nothing.

 

Loose lips, and all that.

 

\---

 

Annie confronted her one day – well, pulled her aside at any rate. Spelled out what each of them was too terrified to say. What they needed to say, if a marriage was ever going to work between Teresa and Rex.

 

What good is it to hide from each other in fear, if they’re giving up the thing they both want?

 

And so, when the AWOL pilot’s been found, they talk. They talk about Annie, how they could neither be as bold as her, but both yearn for it so desperately. About being each other’s safety. Each other’s friend. Teresa doesn’t talk about her Connie, and he doesn’t talk about his…whoever. But maybe, someday they will.

 

And maybe…No – _Surely_ , that can be enough to build a life on.


	3. Coda

Rex is getting married. He’s getting married to a schoolmistress, in a chapel in Cheshire, and he isn’t unhappy about it in the least.

 

It’s not the marriage his mother thinks it is – certainly not a shotgun, wartime wedding – nor the marriage anyone else thinks it is either. But he and Teresa will be happy together, even if they could never _make each other happy_ , in the traditional sense.

 

He says “I do” firmly and clearly. And if Andrew Foyle’s face flickers into his mind for even a moment, well, who’s to know? Or care? Teresa flicks her gaze out into the pews, a skipping breath of hesitance, and then he hears, the moment her eyes lock onto Annie – who he’d sworn would make it to the ceremony, come hell or high water, and whatever strings he had to pull. And then Teresa says, “I do,” to Rex, and to Annie, and through her the promise of tomorrow, whoever might fall into their lives to complete them.

 

And just when Rex thinks he couldn’t be any happier, Sarah – who betrayed his trust, and his friendship, and all the times he nearly confessed to her over letters about the Foyles – comes toward him, and he thinks, ‘No, not today. Please.’

 

But all she does is hand him a letter, crumpled and worn, and marked to Sarah from her niece in Hastings. And Rex’s heart skitters and thumps, and screams ‘Andrew!’ so loud he’s afraid the whole hall can hear. But he finds Teresa’s hand on the path to an alcove tucked away, and with a sigh that carries a million prayers, unfolds the letter.

 

And he understands.

 

The letter _is_ about Andrew. But he hasn’t been killed and he hasn’t been wounded. And he hasn’t gone mad and declared his undying love for Rex Talbot either, more’s the pity. But he has gone AWOL, and shown up half-frenzied with grief in Sam Stewart’s flat, and contemplated deserting. And Sam, dear, darling wonderful Sam has talked him down, and brought in his father at just the right moment, and somehow, it’s all worked out alright.

 

And Andrew is safe as houses, and Sarah was only thinking of her niece and his Andrew, and Rex Talbot is married to Teresa Fenchurch. And for just this one, glorious moment, everything seems right with the world.


End file.
